Marginal leaf galls on Pliocene leaves from India indicate mutualistic behavior between Ipomoea plants and Eriophyidae mites - Aix-Marseille Université Access content directly
Journal Articles Scientific Reports Year : 2023

Marginal leaf galls on Pliocene leaves from India indicate mutualistic behavior between Ipomoea plants and Eriophyidae mites

Abstract

Abstract We report a new type of fossil margin galls arranged in a linear series on dicot leaf impressions from the latest Neogene (Pliocene) sediments of the Chotanagpur Plateau, Jharkhand, eastern India. We collected ca. 1500 impression and compression leaf fossils, of which 1080 samples bear arthropod damage referable to 37 different damage types (DT) in the ‘ Guide to Insect (and Other) Damage Types in Compressed Plant Fossils ’. A few leaf samples identified as Ipomoea L. (Convolvulaceae) have specific margin galls that do not match any galling DT previously described. This type of galling is characterized by small, linearly arranged, irregular, sessile, sub-globose, solitary, indehiscent, solid pouch-galls with irregular ostioles. The probable damage inducers of the present galling of the foliar margin might be members of Eriophyidae (Acari). The new type of gall suggests that marginal gall-inducing mites on leaves of Ipomoea did not change their host preference at the genus level since the Pliocene. The development of marginal leaf galling in Ipomoea is linked to extrafloral nectaries that do not offer protection against arthropod galling but indirectly protect the plant against herbivory from large mammals.

Dates and versions

hal-04064121 , version 1 (11-04-2023)

Identifiers

Cite

Taposhi Hazra, Benjamin Adroit, Thomas Denk, Torsten Wappler, Subhankar Kumar Sarkar, et al.. Marginal leaf galls on Pliocene leaves from India indicate mutualistic behavior between Ipomoea plants and Eriophyidae mites. Scientific Reports, 2023, 13 (1), pp.5702. ⟨10.1038/s41598-023-31393-2⟩. ⟨hal-04064121⟩
21 View
0 Download

Altmetric

Share

Gmail Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More